#31 - Bill's Hooray for the Red, White and Blue | Apartment Therapy San Francisco

#31 - Bill's Hooray for the Red, White and Blue

Name: Bill Quick
Location: San Francisco
Type: This is a three bedroom condominium townhouse I own.

Why I use color:

I use color because it is the single most versatile, high-impact, and inexpensive way to change or shape the character of a room.

2 good color tips:

1. To make the high-impact use of a primary color on the walls even more striking, use a non-color like black or white in another high-impact area: the furniture, for instance.

2. In a three-color scheme, it's usually a good idea to use the third color as an accent only.

2 good color resources:

1. Colors can have deep psychological effects. One excellent resource you can use to familiarize yourself with these effects is The Psychology of Color and Design by Deborah T. Sharpe.

2. If you can, visit a local pottery. The glazes and finishes are a wonderful source of inspiration for bold, yet natural colors and combinations.

Comments (11)

anybody with salvador dali, a real piano, and a curlytail dog heinie in their living room is a real person who gets my vote for INSTAFINALIST.

posted by purejuice on 2006-10-22 11:02:43

Perhaps the first AT contest entrant I have ever seen with a piano. Not so keen on the colors though...

posted by hanifa on 2006-10-22 12:40:47

This room scares me...no way jose!

posted by ees on 2006-10-22 14:24:53

I second Prejudice on the pleasantness a Dali poster and grand piano presence. But I'm not digging these color combinations either.
The place does get my vote for incredicly unique and individual though! It looks like someone expressed themselves without trying to show everyone that they like to "express themselves." I hope that makes sense.

posted by Victoria on 2006-10-23 07:23:48

are both pics of the same wall color? I can't tell, and I think that maybe it is the same color, but the photos look quite different.

posted by angelune on 2006-10-23 08:02:49

Dali or not .. this space is horrifying, in my opinion. I mean, let's judge on what it actually LOOKS like and not on our love of the who's on the wall or what is running around on the floor!

this is a very ecclectic space with a lot going on. I can almost take the diffeent furniture pieces, but the colors being introduced are too much. Tomato red on the wall, greenish blue in the painting, deep brown wood, white slipcovers .. and am I correct in seeing a strip of color on the right side of the first picture to be light blue????

The second picture is worse in my opinion as that salmon color is dead. It does nothing for an otherwise handsome space but turn it almost Liberace-ish .. tacky. There's something very off about it.

I do not think that the use of colors here was thought out well at all. This is the bad kind of ecclectic.

posted by Missy on 2006-10-23 09:05:17

I am personally loving that first pic and think it looks just fab!

posted by Maryam In Marrakesh on 2006-10-23 10:07:49

This place deserves its insta-finalist vote because of the daring and beautiful use of colour in the first room. Love the red... and, alas, the blue being picked up at the entry way. Nice. The second room is lovely as well, with all of your nice furnishings... I regret the wall colour is not as successful as your many other choices. I wish the piano were polished ebony rather than the high gloss... hopefully the piano sound has more subtlety than its finish. What kind is it? A nice woodsy sound would make all well... let's have a play, shall we?

posted by Kelsey on 2006-10-23 11:24:47

que rico...I love it! Again the eclectic! Bill if you are not moderne on this sight they just won't get it! Is this a "design" website or a "style" website? Anybody?

posted by james in miami on 2006-10-23 17:46:14

Well, I for one, have been an interior designer for the past almost ten years. And while I would agree that most people here are "moderne" just given that this is CB2's site, there are many peopel who are still able to judge even though a particular style may not be their own. I find this entry to have "style" (albeit an unsuccesful and cluttered vision), but no real design sense.

I can see what Bill is going for and it should not all be thrown out with the bath water, but alas ecclectic does not have to mean cluttered, busy and/or tacky. It can be done in a clean "designed" way.

More than design style however, I find that the use of color (which is what we're ultimately here to judge - and not what dog Bill may have .. UGH!) is nothing too grand. I would not vote it as the best I've seen or new and exciting so I have to give it a no.

posted by DS on 2006-10-23 19:02:50

I think part of the problem is my photographic skills. Those two pics are different ends of the same room and, take it from me, the paint is identical.

I suspect it is also bad photography that makes those whites so glaring.

Anyway, thanks for the input.

The dog is a vicious pomeranian who is still po'd at me for putting in wood floors, which he has trouble standing up on.

posted by Bill Quick on 2006-10-23 22:10:50